Chapter 352: Act 116 – Five-Headed Serpent Lizard (Part 1)
When Brendel found the serpent lizard, Antinna and Diya were hiding in the nearby shrubs, admiring this beautiful and mysterious creature—of course, they didn’t dare to get too close and were peeking from hundreds of meters away.
The noble lady had actually come out to look for the little girl who was running around collecting materials for Tam. However, when she encountered the wild elf girl along with the lizardman of the Flameclaw clan, they discovered a tranquil little pond in the forest together.
Antinna recognized the scale; she had seen various monsters in books, some of which specifically described this vast family of serpent lizards.
On one hand, she had Lord Ropal of the Flameclaw Clan return to report this matter to Brendel, and on the other hand, she continued to advance with the others, quickly following the large creature’s trail in the forest.
It was a five-headed serpent lizard, its surface exhibiting unparalleled graceful lines at the boundary of light and dark, filled with a tense sense of power. Its detailed scales were pitch black, but some areas hinted at a faint green.
This was a highly venomous serpent lizard.
In terms of defense and power, it was inferior to its other kin, it didn’t have the ability to phase its body like the shadow nine-headed serpent, nor could it manipulate elements like their cold or fire subspecies. Yet, they were one of the most difficult types of serpent lizards to handle, simply because they could spit venom that corroded even magical alloys over a hundred meters away.
Fortunately, Brendel knew how to deal with it. He charged forward and said to the others, “You stay here and watch!” This was directed at the eager young people. Then he commanded, “Kuran, Ropal, Xi, you attack from the back. The direction of the five-headed serpent lizard’s attacks is only 180 degrees; I’ll draw its venom attacks.”
“That’s too dangerous!” The old swordsman unsheathed his sword and followed, knowing the value of the serpent lizard was tremendous, especially since Brendel had promised him a bottle of dragon power potion.
“Leave it to me!” The young man drew the Sword of the Earth—Halangeya. The wind-element acceleration spell affixed to the custom sword sheath that Tam made for him immediately activated, increasing his speed by fifty percent.
As he spoke, he entered the warning range of the serpent lizard. The nearly five-story tall creature also noticed the invader at a distance of two hundred meters. Its third head lifted, and its conical mouth opened wide.
Brendel had not forgotten his combat experience against these creatures. He noticed the creature’s mouth opening while frowning, and rolled to the side. With a ‘hiss,’ a black venomous arrow whizzed past him.
The toxic liquid snaked through the forest, corroding every tree in its path and causing them to sizzle and emit white smoke. Some even caught fire due to the heat released—eventually, the missed venom arrow embedded itself in a patch of forest, and the trees there became visibly withered and yellow.
In a spirit of fearless youthfulness, the young people initially wanted to try their hands, but upon witnessing this scene, their expressions changed, and some even gasped.
“Martha above!”
The young man whom Brendel had named as Magic Duncan stared in shock at the lord effortlessly dodging five poisonous arrows, feeling a mix of anxiety and amazement. He had heard the legends about Brendel, some of which seemed almost unbelievable.
But seeing it firsthand was incomparable; he opened his mouth and suddenly heard someone beside him ask, “Wow, so strong! Did the lord really say that one day we can do this too? Is that true?”
The person who asked this question was clearly stunned. He couldn’t help but tug at his companion. Meria, who had her sleeve tugged, blushed and stepped aside.
“Meria?” the person was surprised. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing, nothing,” Meria shook his head vigorously and quietly replied, “The lord at least has gold-level strength. I think it’ll take us at least a few decades to reach his level…”
“A few decades? But the lord looks like he’s at most twenty!”
“The lord is a genius; can you compare to him?”
“That’s true, but a few decades is too long.”
“That’s the gold level.” The young man who had originally been a mercenary immediately scoffed, “Do you think it’s like pulling a bunch of wild carrots out of the ground? Do you know the reserve knight of the temple? As long as you have gold strength, you can enter the reserve of the knight order—”
Many in the crowd gasped. The reserve of the knight order—those adults were ones they could only look up to in rumors; they were more exalted than Lord Grudin.
“And someone else said, “Don’t talk about gold level; as long as you reach silver level, you can gain a knight title under that lord!”
Even the knight title, the lowest noble title, was filled with temptation.
“Can we reach silver level?” someone asked.
It was only then Karglis snapped back to reality. He now felt that when the lord saw him charging at him with a sword, it must have seemed quite amusing; he had only black iron peak strength, yet he was going against someone at the peak of swordsmanship with gold strength.
Although the young man had thick skin, he still couldn’t help but feel a bit flushed: “We will definitely reach silver level.” He looked at the others and answered.
“How can you be so sure, Karglis?” Meria asked curiously. “It’s difficult for an average person to reach silver level, right? Doesn’t it require some talent?”
“Don’t you think your progress has been quite fast?” Karglis asked.
Everyone was taken aback. Is that so? They were scolded daily by Kuran for being hopelessly foolish; even the long-haired red-haired girl who beat them to the ground every day shook her head at the sight of them. Although the lord appeared kind and gentle, he only smiled at them without saying much.
It made them think they truly were a once-in-a-millennium kind of fool; otherwise, why did the lord and Miss Xi, who looked no more than nineteen or twenty, seem so much stronger than them?
But Karglis shook his head; he knew the problem wasn’t here. Recently, he had felt something significant: ever since he returned to his father from Parsons, the swordsmanship that had long stagnated seemed to show signs of improvement.
Moreover, he was astonished to discover that just one week after entering the Black Forest, his absolute strength began to show signs of turning silver.
“Do you know what kind of swordsmanship the lord teaches you every day?” he asked.
Everyone shook their heads.
“Meria,” Karglis said.
Meria frowned, “I looked at it; it should be the temple’s swordsmanship.”
“Isn’t that strictly forbidden from being spread outside?” someone exclaimed. The young people suddenly fell silent, exchanging glances; secretly teaching temple secrets was no small crime.
But Karglis shook his head; he didn’t care about the temple. The temple wouldn’t look at someone like him, a minor character; they had plenty of talented young people to choose from. Those who were chosen by fate, and the favored ones of heaven were far above him—he was just an ordinary person.
He gently patted Meria on the shoulder: “So do you understand now, Meria? I believe this time I made the right choice.”
Meria blushed.
And the others fell silent, they all heard this sentence.
…
While the young people were lost in thought, Brendel was not as relaxed as they imagined. The venom from the five-headed snake was far more terrifying than it appeared. Although Brendel hadn’t been hit directly, weaving between shots, he quickly saw a series of notifications scanned onto his retina from the green glow grid:
Status abnormal.
At that moment, Brendel had already passed through the fifth venom arrow. He knew that the highly venomous serpent lizard would need some preparation time to spray again, so he immediately signaled to Kuran, Xi, and Ropal behind him to move in quickly, while attempting to maneuver to the side to lure the huge creature to turn.
It was also to leave the area filled with toxic clouds.
He advanced while swiftly switching panels—this was not difficult for him, as it was a reflex action formed from thousands of repetitions—the panel first switched to life status, showing the healthiest green.
This indicated that although the toxic fog was starting to seep into his body, it had yet to cause harm. This was because his constitution could still negate toxins; Brendel’s constitution was over a hundred, and a normal person would have died hundreds of times by now.
He quickly switched to the immunity panel, and the resistance column displayed a light yellow, showing about 87% resistance, but it was still declining. At this rate, within ten minutes, even if he wasn’t hit directly, he would still succumb to poisoning and die.
Gold level is just gold level; it’s not easy to deal with.
The five-headed serpent’s spraying interval in the game was one and a half minutes, which meant the attackers had to quickly close the distance. However, the serpent lizard was exceptionally cunning; it was retreating while it sprayed.
Brendel was accustomed to this tactic. Changing direction, he drew the five-headed serpent’s attention toward him, making it much easier for Kuran and others to approach from the back.
The five-headed serpent lizard realized this too, but it was at a loss and could only emit an angry growl.
After thirty seconds, Brendel and Kuran entered the close range of the massive creature. Brendel charged ahead and leaped to dodge the tail swipe like a steel whip from the five-headed serpent lizard.
The tail sweep was a staple move of dragons and dragon-kind. That tail—more solid than steel—swept through the forest, severing towering ancient trees with a series of cracking sounds echoing for miles, causing all onlookers in the distance to hold their breath.
Brendel landed beside the serpent lizard’s right front claw, raising the Sword of the Earth.
The battle was entering a fevered intensity.
…(To be continued. If you want to know what happens next, please log in for more chapters. Support the author, support genuine reading!)
